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It was definitely not on my bingo card that Apple would be among the first companies to roll out genuinely creepy surveillance tech.
It’s long been suspected by the general public that our smart speakers and TVs are secretly spying on us.
Now Apple — one of the few companies in Silicon Valley that genuinely cares about privacy — is about to roll out a couple of Apple Watch features that do exactly that.
Apple Watch Live Rewind and Siri Recap are two closely related audio features. Live Rewind gives you a short recap of what was just said, while Siri Recap provides an executive summary of important conversations throughout the day.
As our top post today details, Apple is trying very hard to be thoughtful about the privacy implications, and seems to be doing a decent job of minimizing them.
But most of the protections seem to be aimed at the wearer, not necessarily the people around them who are being recorded.
Siri Recap especially strikes me as the audio equivalent of Meta’s creep glasses — spy tech that other people are rightly suspicious of.
There are lots of nuances, however, and we dig into them on this week’s Cult of Mac podcast (video; audio).
The oddest thing, perhaps, is that this is coming from Apple, a privacy vanguard. Perhaps it’s a trial balloon for AirPods with cameras, which are likely to trigger a visceral backlash. Is Apple testing the waters? It’ll be interesting to see whether there’s much consumer backlash to the new Apple Watch features.
Nonetheless, the details of how Apple Watch Live Rewind and Siri Recap work are pretty fascinating.
Also in today’s newsletter:
Unfortunately for my wallet, I already know the answer to this.
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Remember the super-clever Mac feature that lights up the edges of your screen to illuminate your face during video calls? Looks like it’s coming to iPhones, too.
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I don’t love ads, but they definitely have their place, so I’m not necessarily totally opposed to this. I can see how a lot of people might not like it, though.
I’m not sure about tip No. 3, but these are good suggestions for improving your Apple TV experience.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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One more thing ...
Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly. That’s what it means. I’m an optimist, I believe people are smart. And some people want to share more data than other people do. Ask them. Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get tired of your asking them. Let them know precisely what you’re going to do with their data.
Today’s poll
What do you think of Live Rewind and Siri Recap?
Results from yesterday’s poll
Best reader comments
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